Barry George has said he could not have killed Jill Dando because he was stalking another woman at the time of the shooting.

An Old Bailey jury on Friday cleared the 48-year-old of murdering the TV presenter, eight years after he was jailed for the crime.

Detectives investigating the killing became increasingly convinced Mr George was the gunman after they discovered he had followed numerous women and taken thousands of pictures of them.

But Mr George has insisted that at the time Miss Dando was murdered, he was following another woman after leaving a disability centre in Fulham.

Miss Dando was shot dead on her doorstep in Fulham, west London, at around 11.30am on April 26, 1999.

Between 10.30am and 12.33pm on the day of the shooting, Mr George insisted, he was either at the centre or walking beside the woman.

"That was at 12.33pm. I know because just a minute before I'd made a call from my mobile to check how much credit I had left," he said.

During three weeks of surveillance before his arrest Mr George was seen to approach 38 women and try to make conversation with them.

Miss Dando, 37, was a BBC TV presenter at the height of her fame when she was shot in the head at her home in Gowan Avenue.

Mr Geroge said he was bitter at the eight years he spent behind bars: "I've missed out on so much. I should have been getting on with my life. Who knows what I could have done and achieved?"

He said he realised his history of pestering women had fuelled police suspicion about him, and promised to change his behaviour.

"I don't want to spend any more time in any of Her Majesty's holiday camps... I won't follow women anymore. I know it's wrong," he said.

Nearly 10 years on, the killer of Miss Dando remains at large and the shooting could now be the subject of a cold case review.

Mr George said he was prepared to take a lie detector test to prove he did not kill Miss Dando and said he did not believe police would ever catch her killer.

"To be quite honest and practical, I don't think they'll ever find who done it."

Mr George also expressed sympathy for Miss Dando's family, saying: "I can't begin to understand or feel what they must be going through."

He is now expected to seek compensation for the eight years he spent in prison, which experts believe could be at least £250,000.

© Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.